When After Eight mints were first marketed 50 years ago this year they were
supposed to be the height of sophistication, the elegant end to a perfect
dinner party. But the slogans used to sell the thin chocolate mint fondants
in 1962 would stick in the throat today and fall foul of the Advertising
Standards Authority’s code.

The eye-opening adverts by Rowntree, the company that launched After Eight,
featured manicured housewives, identified by their husbands’ names, above
captions such as: “A woman’s place is in the home, eating After Eight and
looking beautiful.”